You were an essential part of what President Obama rightfully called "a shameful day for Washington."

You took a piece of legislation that 90 percent of Americans -- 90 percent of your employers -- supported and ran it through a paper shredder.

You voted against common-sense gun legislation as proposed by the president and desired by an overwhelming majority in this country. Granted, a good percentage of your constituents squawk at the mere whisper of "gun control." But sometimes you have to vote for the best interest of the nation.

The great Charlie Pierce writes in Esquire this month that the only way President Obama would satisfy a "collection of the lame, the halt and the very, very stupid" in the Senate "would have been to lose the previous two presidential elections retroactively."

Majority rules, senators.

Only, I guess, when a minority can grab hold of a loophole and turn it into a noose around an effective piece of legislation.

"We can do more if Congress gets its act together," Obama said.

I'm not holding my breath.

Funny, but I didn't even need to look it up to know how your votes went. Your reputations precede you.

You've assured yourselves you'll keep those A-plus ratings awarded you by the NRA, two of the 10 senators held in such lofty esteem by the NRA.

Give the NRA credit. It's the greatest spewer of misleading, paranoia-fueling propaganda since the heydey of Rush Limbaugh.

"The gun lobby and its allies willfully lied about the bill," Obama said.

Did you really believe this was suddenly going to void the Second Amendment?

View full sizePresident Barack Obama arrives to participate in a news conference in the Rose Garden of the White House, Wednesday, April 17, 2013, in Washington, about measures to reduce gun violence. With tObama is former Rep. Gabby Giffords, left, and Mark Barden, the father of Newtown shooting victim Daniel. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

How could you look at your Capitol Hill colleague, Rep. Gabby Giffords, a gun-owner herself, and not support a legitimate movement for change? She would later email supporters, "The U.S. Senate decided to do the unthinkable about gun violence -- nothing at all."

In case you heard the person in the gallery -- since you've heard nothing else, you probably didn't -- who shouted "Shame on you," her name was Patricia Maisch. She helped disarm the gunman who shot Rep. Giffords and killed six others, including a 9-year-old girl.

How could you look at the Sandy Hook families and not be moved to support the legislation?

How can you look at yourself?

This has been an emotional week.

We've watched Boston bombed. We mourned as a nation. We saw investigators work quickly to try to solve the mystery. We saw Boston began to knit itself back together.

We watched a small Texas town decimated by a plant explosion so powerful it registered 2.1 on the Richter scale. We learned how volunteer firemen rushed bravely toward the blaze only to lose their lives. We heard a spokesman essentially say, "no more," to the influx of support coming from off-duty first responders from hundreds of miles away.

Then we heard how you and some stubborn colleagues, trying to put another pebble in the president's shoe and to keep the ATM running, voted against the country's overwhelming wishes.

On our worst days, as we've seen this week, America is at its best.

On what could have been one of Washington's best days, you were at your worst.

Regards,

Mark McCarter

(Updated to add drawing from AL.com cartoonist J.D. Crowe.)

Mark McCarter is a member of the al.com and Huntsville Times editorial board. Contact him at mmccarter@al.com and Follow @markmccarter

Related Stories

Columnists

Alabama prisons

Through a series of interactive workshops, people shared their concerns about crowded prisons, listed possible actions and identified costs and consequences. What emerged from this exercise are these three possible approaches.